2 More Plead Guilty In El Paso Public Corruption Investigation

United States Attorney John E. Murphy announced that in El Paso Friday morning, 53-year-old Patrick Woods, former member of the Board of Directors for the National Center for the Employment of the Disabled (NCED), pleaded guilty to embezzlement in connection with the El Paso corruption investigation.

Appearing before United States District Judge Frank Montalvo, Woods pleaded guilty to count ten of the superseding indictment charging him with conspiracy to embezzle or steal federal program funds.

By pleading guilty, Woods admitted to conspiring with former NCED CEO and President Bob Jones, and others between September 2005 and February 2006 to knowingly misapply without authority money generated through government contracts belonging to NCED. Specifically, Woods, Jones and others caused NCED to purchase two pieces of property in El Paso in which Woods and Jones had a direct personal interest.

Also today, Judge Montalvo unsealed a one-count Information filed by the United States Attorney’s Office against 51-year-old Victor Mendez charging him with conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Mendez pleaded guilty to the Information on Aug. 26, 2010, before Judge Montalvo.

By pleading guilty, Mendez admittedly conspired with others to offer two bribes-one for $7,000 and the other for $13,000- in August 2005 to Salvador “Sal” Mena, Jr., who at the time served as a trustee with the El Paso Independent School District, in exchange for securing sub-contracts to perform work at two EPISD schools.

To date, 14 individuals have pleaded guilty to criminal conduct stemming from this investigation conducted by the El Paso Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They are: John Travis Ketner; Elizabeth “Betti” Flores; Bernard Lucero, Jr.; Carlos Villa Cordova; Roberto Gerardo Ruiz; Christopher Chol-Su Pak; Raymond Telles; Antonio Dill; Fernando Parra; Gary Lange; Salvador Marcos “Sal” Mena, Jr.; Robert Edward “Bob” Jones; Victor Mendez; and, Patrick Woods.

On Thursday, 11 prominent El Pasoans were indicted following a six-year federal investigation into allegedly pervasive corruption throughout local government.

The charges are based on the federal government’s Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) law.

The allegedly corrupt organization in the case was Access HealthSource, a health insurer that did business with El Paso County, and the El Paso, Ysleta and Socorro school districts.

Charged Thursday were former Access CEO Frank Apodaca and ex-company spokesman Mark Schwartz.

Also charged were: Former El Paso County Judge Luther Jones. Current Socorro Mayor and former Socorro ISD trustee Willie Gandara Sr. Lawyer and former City Rep. David Escobar. Former County Commissioner Larry Medina. Current District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez. Current Ysleta ISD trustee Linda Chavez. Former Ysleta ISD trustee Mickey Duntley. Former Socorro ISD trustee Charlie Garcia. Former Socorro ISD trustee Ray Rodriguez. Prosecutors said the charges stem from arrangements to sell votes to award contracts to Access.

Federal prosecutors and FBI officials said these indictments signaled the end of phase one of the investigation. The other phases are the other cases that spang up from the investigation.

Murphy and FBI Special Agent in Charge David Cuthbertson on Thursday said Operation Poisoned Pawns started when an FBI agent was transferred from a drug task force to public corruption. He developed informants and the informants tipped him off to the alleged crimes.

All of the information obtained for the indictments came from three wiretaps on three cell phones. This gave the FBI thousands of hours of recorded conversations to work from.

The investigation started with Access and led to other indictments in other cases. No trial date has been set for those indicted. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has obtained 12 guilty pleas. Those 12 people will be witnesses in these cases.

FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office officials said others may have been involved but were not charged.

Prosecutors said at an afternoon news conference that that the investigation had to do with Access contracts and one contract with a law firm. They said some of the bribes were less than $1,000 while others amounted to thousands of dollars.

Most of the indicted were tight-lipped, with their attorneys by their side, as they walked into FBI headquarters in West El Paso Thursday morning.

Some said they were shocked they were indicted, others indicated they felt persecuted.

Sanchez said he was relieved his father, a former SISD school board member, wasn’t indicted.

“There were fears that my father was going to be charged with something and, fortunately, he wasn’t and he was a school board trustee,” Sanchez told ABC-7.

Apodaca had a positive attitude about the situation.

“I feel good. I’m usually patient, you know, God is with me,” Apodaca said. “I feel a little persecuted right now, but certainly not abandoned. I feel a little struck but certainly not destroyed and my faith will carry me through this.”

Medina said he did not feel persecuted at this time.

“I feel much more curious than anything else,” Medina said. “I think that most people that know me, that really know me, they’re probably just saying ‘Larry Medina what’s he doing there?'”

Sanchez had that reaction when he saw Medina inside FBI headquarters while he was in there.

“I was surprised to see Larry Medina. That I was,” Sanchez said.

Court records show the entire corruption investigation began in the summer of 2004. The offices of the National Center for Employment of the Disabled were the first to be searched as part of the investigation.

In 2007, former county chief of staff Travis Ketner, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and bribery. A federal information document that was part of Ketner’s guilty plea implicated 20 unnamed co-conspirators in fraud or bribery.

In 2007, FBI agents searched the County Courthouse offices of County Judge Anthony Cobos, County Commissioner Miguel Teran and County Commissioner Luis Sarinana. The men have denied any wrongdoing and have not been indicted or charged.

Prosecutors could now have a harder time trying public corruption cases because of U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer.

The court ruling in the Enron case makes it more difficult for prosecutors to prove an “honest services” fraud case. That law has been criticized by defense attorneys as a last resort for prosecutors that lack evidence to prove that money actually changed hands.

The justices ruled that gifts and trips do not necessarily constitute bribes.

That ruling could apply to one of the cases involving former Luther Jones and Sanchez, however, prosecutors today said the Supreme Court ruling will not affect their case.

Sanchez is accused of taking a trip to Las Vegas in exchange for steering county business to a client of Luther Jones. Their trial, originally scheduled for this summer, has been postponed.

RICO indictments returned Tuesday and unsealed Thursday: Frank Apodaca Jr and Marc Schwartz were each charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and deprivation of honest services, two counts mail fraud, two counts conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Larry Medina was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and deprivation of honest services and one count of mail fraud during for crimes he allegedly committed while a County Commissioner.

Luther Jones, Gilbert Sanchez, David Escobar, Mickey Duntley, Ray Rodriguez were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

Charges Willie Gandara Sr. and Linda Chavez with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

People who have pleaded guilty in the investigation in the past Bob Jones, NCED president Carlos Cordova, El Paso Independent School District board member, resigned position Sal Mena, El Paso Independent School District board member, resigned position Betti Flores – Former El Paso County Commissioner Raymond Telles – Former El Paso City Representative Travis Ketner, El Paso County Chief of Staff, resigned position Fernando Parra, Assistant to attorney Luther Jones Roberto “Bobby” Ruiz, Bear Stearns banker Chris Chol-Su-Pak, Bear Stearns banker Bernardo Lucero, architectPeople who have been indicted in the investigation Luther Jones, Attorney, former County Judge, State Rep, County Attorney Gilbert Sanchez, District Clerk Ernie Lopez, NCED worker Adrian Pea, formerly with CFJordan, now a construction consultant Jose Alfredo Gallegos, businessman

Related Links:Link:Download The IndictmentLink:How The 11 Are Described In IndictmentVideo:Link:Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act Explained